Talk:Hamlet/@comment-24984436-20140618181544
As I have been reading about Dido as abandoned woman and female desire in general, I started to think about Ophelia's love for Hamlet. One gets the impression that it is a strong one, since she suffers so much because of Hamlet's actions, but it is not completely congruent with "traditional female desire" as found in, for example, the Heroides by Ovid (I am so sorry that I won't stop talking about that chap, but he has become a big part of my life over the past weeks!). Ophelia appears naïve, just like a little schoolgirl when Polonius asks "Mad for thy love?" and she answers "my lord, I do not know/ but truly I do fear it" (Act II.I.84-89). She does not seem to understand any signs (or at least, she does not look for anything behind them) and in her ignorance, all she can do is fear. Most of her actions in their love seem to be influenced by Polonius' instructions anyway (Polonius: What, have you given him any hard words of late? Ophelia: No, my good lord, but as you did '''command/ '''I repel his letters, and denied his access to me" (Act. II.I.109-11). I am going to come back to "denying access to Ophelia" later. In act III, scene I, Hamlet admits "I loved you not" (120), to which Ophelia, at least in my opinion, laconically replies "I was the more deceived" (121). "deceived" makes me think of Dido's speech where she addresses Aeneas, as the traitor and deceiver who abandons her for Rome (and eventually another woman). Hamlet suggests that Ophelia should go to a nunnery, which could be something with a less sacred reputation than the usual term, and Ophelia just seems to take his advice. Ophelia does react eventually by replying "o help him, you sweet heavens!" (134) and "o heavenly powers, restore him" (142). This begging seems to only sort of opposition before she starts grieving ("O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ... o woe is me t'have seen what I have seen, see what I see" (151, 160-1). Ophelia grows more insane each minute, and all she does is grieve. This is one part of traditional female desire; as I have been reading about Dido's female desire, I have learnt that it essentially means that a woman (although I do not mean to make any overgeneralisations) wishes to be the eternal cause of the other's desire, and to be what the other lacks. To make themselves into the cause of man's desire, they will construct themselves as both powerful and helplessness. They take on two self-constructions to manipulate man's narcissism to their own advantage; they want to be powerful in order to become man's idealised double, but at the same time, they need to be different from the man by reflecting helplessness and vulnerability to emphasise man's power. I am not saying that every woman does this, but Dido, for example, certainly does. Ophelia, however, only seems to represent the weakness and vulnerability in grieving and her insanity, while she never seems to try to act in a powerful manner. When she does by denying Hamlet access, she only does it because her father tells her to do so, so she is still not acting herself. Of course, it can just be her personality, but perhaps she is not that desperate for Hamlet's love after all, for she only tries to gain back her position as object of desire by being one-dimensional and vulnerable.